EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — The 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has announced sentencing for a man who forged signatures in a 2024 El Paso County Commissioner race.
According to the D.A.’s office, 29-year-old Juan Pichardo was working for a petition signature gathering company subcontracted to support David Leinweber’s campaign for El Paso County Commissioner.
In El Paso County, candidates’ names can be placed on the ballot through a petition. It’s one of three ways that a candidate can get on the primary ballot.
According to the D.A.’s office, the El Paso Clerk and Recorder’s Office noticed something seemed off about his campaign’s petition signatures. Prosecutors say Pichardo forged signatures before submitting the petition.
“The detection of fraudulent petition signatures by my office demonstrates the effectiveness of the safeguards and verification processes we have in place,” a statement from El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Steve Schleiker read in part.
Schleiker said his office noticed several anomalies in the petitions. The ink colors and font styles were similar. Most damming of all, the signatures made it appear the petitioner went criss-crossing around town to get his signatures. There was one signature from Manitou Springs, then one from Monument, then another one from Cascade, unlike what a legitimate canvassing effort would look like.
“In addition to that, the majority of these signatures were taken was during the snowstorm, where we received over 35in of snow in 2024,” Schleiker said the petition papers themselves didn’t look as if they had been carried through a snowstorm.
At that point, the clerk and recorder’s office contacted the DA’s Office and the candidate, David Leinweber.
“The candidate, Mr. Leinweber, and his campaign at that time, for commissioner of District three, as the clerk recorder, they did everything correctly,” Schleiker said in a sit-down interview with KRDO13. Schleiker said the campaign expressed some of their own concerns about the signatures, too.
“They were in full transparency. The candidate was absolutely in the right. He paid for a service that was not provided,” Schleiker said.
Even after the investigation, Leinweber still garnered enough verified petition signatures to get his name on the Republican primary ballot, records show. However, he ultimately lost that primary for El Paso County Commissioner District 3. Leinweber is currently serving out a term on the Colorado Springs City Council.
KRDO13 attempted to speak with Councilor Leinweber through a city spokesperson multiple times about this news. We will update this story when he responds to our request for comment or interview.